Mass Effect 2
Written by Bennett The Sage Sunday, 31 January 2010 19:41
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Comments (38)
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01.31.2010 - 20:52 | thenoobguru
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02.01.2010 - 15:45 | Apathetic One[b]This game is nearly perfect IMO. It took me 54hrs to complete this game on Hardcore (including all loyalty and upgrade missions) and I spent about 3hrs total scanning planets. Sure scanning is a bit tedious, especially before getting the scan upgrade for the Normandy, but honestly I didn't mind it much. The planets are all gorgeous to look at and fun to read about, which made it more enjoyable. My only gripes with this game: the cover system and difficulty on the insane setting. I lost count of how many times I'd be under heavy fire and instead of sliding into cover to avoid dieing, vaulted over the cover only to be blown away by the enemy.
Oh and why were you scanning a planet that had a ''poor'' mineral status? Stick to the planets with ''rich'' and ''good'' statuses to cut down on the total scan time and collect minerals fast as possible. [/b]
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02.02.2010 - 06:43 | YamiSilaasThe only thing i hated was jack. I loved everything, even the scanning was kinda fun when you find a huge spike, but omg i couldnt stand jack. Shes a whiney, no good bitch. She was supposed to be all badass, but i wish i could just punch her in the head.
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02.01.2010 - 07:20 | overfiend_87
same here. I really want to play the first game since I havn't played it. It looks really awesome.
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01.31.2010 - 20:34 | Kamakura
Great work as always Sage
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01.31.2010 - 20:33 | beelowhappy to see a review from u on this amazing game. it wasnt even ruined by that dumbass who said "FURST!" Stupid ass
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02.01.2010 - 05:50 | tiggerpeteummmm, nobody said first
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01.31.2010 - 20:43 | LunarLycan
Gotta say, spot on review. The real drag comes from the scanning of planets.
GOD I HATE SCANNING!
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01.31.2010 - 20:50 | Valzahd
Good review and you pretty much nailed everything on the head. Sadly yea, the scanning is the obvious game padding of ME2, much like how the Meko segments of the first game were padding.
I would say it does feel a tad lacking in scope because we're not making as large choices as before. But then again as mentioned it doesn't focus on the political nature like the first game and is more character focused. The squad member side missions really are wonderful and quite intense at some points so I really don't have much to complain about there.
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Seriously, you are one of the fairest reviewers I know. Instead of stressing the negatives or unloading heaps of praise on a game, you actually objectively review it like a sane human being. Commendable, Sage.
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01.31.2010 - 21:17 | Alacar
On a souped-up PC with high-end specs, ME2 plays flawlessly. And I never found the planet-gathering tedious. I'm falling in love with the game hard and fast.
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01.31.2010 - 22:00 | DoomGuy
I wish I liked Mass Effect, this game looks great, but it's not my kind of game.
I was already disappointed in ME's RPG element, but the sequel dumbs it down even further? No thanks...
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01.31.2010 - 22:03 | Jutsushine
Whoa! dude... you spoke quite a lot about the plot. No spoiler alerts?
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02.01.2010 - 01:27 | PLASpoiler alerts for "the main character survives the first cutscene"?
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01.31.2010 - 22:22 | thebob288
THANK YOU SAGE you are the first person to point out flaws in this game while everyone else runs around yelling ITS PERFECT and don't get me wrong it is a great game but people seem to be blind to its flaws.
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try it on the pc and if you have a scalable mouse the exploration is quick and painless, also the radar on the scanner is not mentioned in your review so it seems like you have to scan the entire planet to find anomalies which is untrue, but otherwise spot on review also Liara's voice actor sounds awful
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02.01.2010 - 00:37 | TartGnomeGreat review, but I must disagree with Sage on the scanning. It is a great addition to the game, and you don't necessarily HAVE to scan, but it helps. The scanning made it feel so much more realistic (as realistic as sci-fi gets :P ) Great review nonetheless, Sage.
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02.01.2010 - 00:37 | zunariGreat review! No one spoke about the changes with the limited ammo oO
Now it's getting more confused to choose a class T_T
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I find it interestng how your feelings of the space exploration are the polar opposite from Angry Joe's review. :silly: Interesting thoughts, but I love the game and its my favorite on the next generation consoles so far. :P
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Another great review! Just gotta throw in though, I agree with you completely. The plot is amazing at first I must say and it drew me in very quickly. But the more you play, the quicker you realize that everything was kind of unmemorable and went by really quickly. The end-game content is also rather lack-luster. I won't spoil anything, but like you said, it shows-up ME1 but it still has its flaws. Hopefully ME3 will be even better! :side:
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02.01.2010 - 04:34 | zeburei bought me 3month ago, and i have finaly start play it,
the reason why i havent take my time to play it until now, well i did play it 1h 3month ago, and i got bored.
now when i have start play , im alrdy 10h in the game, and well only 1h gameplay isnt enought to see all the extra that makes this game an strong bioware title.
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02.01.2010 - 05:13 | HadzuMust buy Xbox game? Screw that, PC is the way to go!
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02.01.2010 - 05:23 | Shinigami
There was major difference in opinion between you and Joe what comes to exploration and scanning planets. You said that it was worst part of the game when Joe clearly liked from both of them.
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02.01.2010 - 07:47 | Germanfani still miss the hovercar from masseffekt 1
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02.01.2010 - 08:07 | CosmicKirbyI had a significantly more bearable time with the mineral scan, but this is most likely due to my time using the Mineral Scans friendliness towards A Mouse N Keyboard, and myself playing the PC version.
I laughed when I saw how slowly you scrolled.
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02.01.2010 - 09:04 | Urge
I didn't really mind the scanning, you really don't need to do it that much if you go after the planets that are rich on resources, where you'll often find a huge amount of resources very quickly.
Overall, I love this game. Though I loved the first one as well so maybe I'm just a fanboy :P
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I'm not sure playing this will be good for me. I've managed to avoid becoming any kind of fanboy so far in my gaming career........
This might push me over the edge.
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[quote=thebob288]THANK YOU SAGE you are the first person to point out flaws in this game while everyone else runs around yelling ITS PERFECT and don't get me wrong it is a great game but people seem to be blind to its flaws. [/quote]
[b]
There's a difference between ''being blind to it's flaws'' and simply dismissing them because there really aren't many[/b]
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02.01.2010 - 15:40 | VladinatorSpend only 25 hours played to finish the game. Had all the possible recruits and they were all loyal (did their missions). Had also almost all upgrades (all except some weapon upgrades) too and had done some "sidequests" but I am happy it was not too long, it's nice when stuff are consistent and precise. ;)
By the way about the material finding being a bitch, simply skip planets flagged "Poor", personally I only take what I can find until it says Moderate -then I change and go to another planet.
Also missions are easy to spot because EDI tells you there is a "abnormality" when you cross over a planet with a mission, and when scanning a small white marker will point you to where the mission location is so when you find the white dot you launch a probe and you can take on the mission. :)
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02.01.2010 - 17:21 | Kavonde
Yeah, scanning was pretty awful. Eventually, after getting both upgrades to the process, I put on a movie and just grinded the mineral gathering for a couple of hours, and didn't need to launch another probe for the rest of the game. (Except for anomaly sidequests, anyway.) It sucks, but it's nice to have it done.
Unrelated: I saw someone who said they beat the game and all the side quests in 12 hours. I'm pretty sure that's not physically possible; having scoured the galaxy for every anomaly and done every mission I could find, I'm sitting at 36 hours. Still not especially long for an RPG (especially a Bioware one), but even had I rushed, I couldn't have hoped to do it in 12 hours.
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I love this game, but I have to say the one thing about it that bothered me even more than the scanning (which I completely agree gets way too tedious) is actually the readability of the text. I have an old-ish tv, and I'm sure this problem is less apparent on hi-def screens, but I could barely read the dialogue or the text messages in the game. The font was just needlessly small. This isn't a problem that I would say is limitted to Mass Effect (although I had some slight problem with it in the first one too, just not as bad), it seems that unnecessarily small fonts are a more and more frequent problem in games today. I cite Assassins Creed as another example. In this game, though, you miss out on so much extra stuff if you aren't able to read the codex entries or the emails you're sent in-game. Plus, if you can't fully read your dialogue options, it's easy to accidentally say something that gives you renegade points when you're opting for Paragon, or vice-versa.
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[quote=VillainVercingetor ix]I love this game, but I have to say the one thing about it that bothered me even more than the scanning (which I completely agree gets way too tedious) is actually the readability of the text. I have an old-ish tv, and I'm sure this problem is less apparent on hi-def screens, but I could barely read the dialogue or the text messages in the game. The font was just needlessly small. This isn't a problem that I would say is limitted to Mass Effect (although I had some slight problem with it in the first one too, just not as bad), it seems that unnecessarily small fonts are a more and more frequent problem in games today. I cite Assassins Creed as another example. In this game, though, you miss out on so much extra stuff if you aren't able to read the codex entries or the emails you're sent in-game. Plus, if you can't fully read your dialogue options, it's easy to accidentally say something that gives you renegade points when you're opting for Paragon, or vice-versa.[/quote]
[b]I had the same problem..but only with the codex and emails. In regards to the dialog system choices, Paragon choices are on the top, renegade on the bottom..the middle options are neutral. Anytime I couldn't hear what they were saying, I would just go with the top option to stay on the Paragon course..(: [/b]
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02.04.2010 - 16:09 | Marza
Hmm.. Why can't I see what everyone likes about this series? I have to say you made a good review, but the first one didn't really fancy me at all. It just felt slow and like "Humans in danger.. You're the only hope.. Blabla.. Who was this Saren guy again?"
Its just me i guess :unsure:
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02.13.2010 - 00:50 | Fantomn33t
The removal from selling of random power ups in ME1 just to purchase an additional side grade armor piece I personaly found a step in the right direction. However, it seems in ME2 they added that time consuming probe mini game to make up for the removal of "resource scouting" that was ever present in ME1.
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03.03.2010 - 20:07 | BaronSengir
I was absolutely shocked when i saw that they took an watered down but good rpg game and turned it into a shooter. I just dont like ME2.
I dont like shooters and this is one.
Same feeling when i play a good shooter. No fun.
Good for the shooter guys out there. I am happy fpr you guys that you get another very good series. But for the RPG base its a set back.
But not all is dead and gone. There is still hope. There is Drakensang 2. :D
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great vidya sage